To facilitate participatory democracy in which the citizens assisted by civil society organisations can play a role in prompting decision making in larger public interest, various civil society organisations of Uttarakhand have initiated work on the formation of a common forum for a concerted approach to capacity building of citizens to tackle deep rooted corruption. As part of this initiative, the RTI Club Uttarakhand organised a meet of various such bodies in Dehradun on Sunday.
Initiating the discussion, RTI Club head BP Maithani observed that much of the travails of the common people can be traced back to their lack of awareness about various instruments of empowerment legislated by the Parliament and State legislatures to safeguard their interests. He said, “Over the years, the governance process has shifted from mere service delivery to enacting for entitlements of the rights of citizens. Though the delivery system remains intact, its effectiveness has eroded considerably because of declining standards of administration. Increasing maladministration has given rise to rampant corruption and antipathy to public services. Informing citizens about their rights and obligations of public authorities can go a long way in the capacity building of the citizens to participate effectively in the development process impacting their lives. During the last ten years of RTI Act for example, the State government has neither undertaken nor sponsored even a single public awareness programme in compliance of the provision in section 26 of the RTI Act. As a result, despite the appeal and popularity of RTI Act only about 0.5 per cent people of Uttarakhand have used RTI Act during last ten years which is substantially low. Further, its users are unevenly distributed between urban (73%), rural (27%), men (93%), women (7%) and BPl population which constituted only 2% of RTI users. Given this scenario, there is need for a big effort to enlighten the citizens about their rights and the manners of using those rights. There is an urgent need to form a grand alliance of civil society organisations working for analogous purposes under the banner of Citizens Rights Forum Uttarakhand. The main instrument to activate the system will obviously be the RTI Act which provides legal sanction to expose corruption, question irregularities, inaction and inertia in our public service system. The purpose is to reform the system by enabling direct citizen participation in policy making and programme implementation,” said Maithani.
Activist Kamla Pant spoke of the need for similar education for all in the state while stressing that the politicians and bureaucrats should join the government school programme for there kids, only then can one expect the required improvement in the education system of Uttarakhand.
Other speakers from different fields expressed their views on issues including aspects of the Himalayas, need for effective implementation of Clinical Establishment Act in the State and the functioning of the Uttarakhand Police Complaint Tribunal among other issues.